Dan Thorpe

Dan Thorpe is a Performer//Composer based in Adelaide, South Australia.

Influenced by everything from queer punk to American experimentalism, Dan Thorpe’s music “decimat[es] the boundaries of genre” [CutCommon, 2016]. His broad base of musical experience is reflected in a curious, experimental and genre defying compositional and performance output linked together by a love of storytelling and sense of irreverence for existing forms. As a composer, his work always has a focus on collaborative, open approaches to composition that stress the importance of performers’ creative input in musical expression. As a performer, his focus is on contemporary Australian repertoire, work by queer and women composers, and multi-instrumental improvisation.

In 2016, Dan played over thirty shows, spanning Australia, the US and Brazil. His album homecoming (three years later) was a finalist in the SA Music awards, he won a Major Commissioning Prize at the Soundstream Emerging Composers Festival, and he was named Emerging Artist of the Year by the Adelaide Critics’ Circle. He was one of the inaugural winners of the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund, which commissioned his piece false cognate for bass flute & electric guitar/viola/electronics. He also took part in highSCORE Festival in Pavia, Italy, and released a tape – D I A P H R A G M – on 3BS Records.

As well as a career in the arts, Dan has been a freelance Digital Producer, coder and Social Media Manager for five years. He teaches a class on DIY Digital Production at the University of Adelaide, volunteers for peak youth mental health body headspace, and helped found both the South Australian Youth Mental Health Action Group and the Elder Conservatorium Students’ Association.